God doesn't place more emphasis on blind faith than on reason. If God did this, He would have not created the universe. Rather, he would have created a bunch of non-embodied spirits, and then let them attempt to figure out some form of body on their own by faith alone... which they couldn't have done because of their lack of imagination.
All of the universe exists to train people to use their faith to make things happen like God does. But people are such infants that it will take them most or all of eternity to figure out how to use faith, even though they have the abundant examples of the universe. The examples of the universe are the things that make for visible faith rather than blind faith.
Yes he does otherwise you wouldn't need to believe in god to go to heaven. In fact atheists should go to heaven instead of theists because they are the ones using reason to find out the truth. Unlike theists that believe what they are told without ever trying to find proof or evidence.
How do you train yourself to use ''faith'' exactly? Faith: ''strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof'' Every baptist has faith in his religion just like every Catholic or orthodox or muslim or christian. They all have faith in different things and yet not all of them can be right, clearly faith is not working, is it? How would we ever know which one is correct if we are only using faith? Don't you see how stupid that is?
Believing in God doesn't mean believing that He exists. We know that He exists simply by observing nature, or when we attempt to set ourselves up as gods by trying to believe that God doesn't exist. Believing in God is believing in the things that He tells us in the Bible. Such faith is using reason, basing faith on Bible and God knowledge. Such is reasonable way more than atheism, which tries to force belief in atheism on the so-called atheist while the so-called atheist knows for a fact that God might exist.
"Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." The most important faith in this life is saving faith... Jesus salvation faith. It is found through the Bible. Then in Heaven, faith will be increased because we will see some of the results of our faith, and we will understand more of the Word of God, making our faith in the rest of it grow.
The atheists, like everyone else, don't know for a fact what is going to happen in the next second. We all live by faith. To a great extent it is your choice regarding which faith you attempt to have. Examine, extensively, whatever it is that maintains your faith, and the truth of the direction you want your faith to move in. Make sure it is correct. That is the best you can do.
Let me ask you something badecker, imagine you were born in a heavy islamic country, imagine that you never leave the country either. How certain are you that you would have found out that the ''real god'' is the god from the bible? 1%? Less?
The answer to this question is detailed in some ways.
1. All people have a natural knowledge of the real God. This knowledge isn't complete. But it exists.
2. I don't know that I would have ever found the important truth about God in Islamic countries.
3. I don't know that I would have ever stepped out of wrong faith, into the proof of God's existence in Islamic countries.
4. It is by God's mercy that I am what I am regarding God, and regarding most of my life.
5. Consider that in the past, many of the Arab counties contributed greatly to the basic sciences of math and astronomy. The knowledge of coming to see the truth about God still exists there. Note that even the Koran talks briefly about Jesus, and makes reference to the Bible, and to the religion of the Jews. Knowledge of the real God is penetrating through the false gods even to Islam and Muslims... if only they would use their heads and recognize it.
Praise and thanks to God that He found it good and right to make it easy on me to find Him, by placing me in a situation where I have some of the best info about God. I don't understand how and why this works the way it does.
EDIT: My ability to understand these things, shows how religion and my mental health work together. But, if I am wrong, and if you can show that I am nuts, then your mental health is being impacted by what you believe, your religion.